Television Crossover Universe

  Rutland Vermont has an annual Halloween Parade , the longest running annual Halloween Parade in America .  It started in 1960.  It was founded by Tom Fagen .  While in the past it had a very strong superhero theme , this year's parade seemed to focus more on Ghostbusters and The Nightmare Before Christmas .   The parade was very well known and popular among comic creators in the 1970s and 1980s who would travel from New York City to attend the parade.  They would feature the parade in their stories, for both Marvel and DC, and usually show people in costumes from their competitors in those stories, as well as putting themselves and their friends in the stories.  Tom Fagen would often appear in the stories as well.  Tom usually dressed as Batman in the parades, but in Marvel Comics he would be drawn dressed at Nighthawk .   The first appearance of the parade was in Avengers # 83 , December 1970. In 1972, it appeared in a three p...

 I've taken another hiatus on the Sci-Fi Multiverse book.  There's a lot of redundencies with the Horror Crossover Encyclopedia, more than I anticipated.  There's a lot of sci-fi/horror crossovers.  I don't want to repeat myself but I also want to be all-inclusive.  This has left me frustrated and ready to abandon the project altogether.  My previous venture, Cartoon Multiverse, was abandoned because of my quest to be all-inclusive faced me against Family Guy, where the crossovers never end and I was really sick of watching every Family Guy episode in such minute detail.   So...  I figured I can spend more time on the TVCU blog.  I love the TVCU blog.  Except, I'm running out of ideas.  I think I've covered mostly everything, except for maybe some topics I don't have enough familiarity with to cover.  I know there's a lot of anime crossovers, which I would have gotten to in Cartoon Multiverse, but I'm really not that famil...

 Every weekend I block out two hours for writing, and I should be using that time editing my book today, but I'm really not enjoying writing that book, and thinking of abandoning it altogether, so instead I'm doing another blog post to procrastinate from that other project. Some say we have super hero fatigue.  Less super hero movies are being made, after years of flooding the market.  James Gunn says that it's not fatigue for super-hero movies.  We just need good stories.   Super hero movies have been with us since the days of the serials in the 1940s.  Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel and Captain America all got serials, along with non-super comic book characters like Blackhawk, Hop Harrigan, and Dick Tracy.   For decades, it seemed as though the super-hero movies were focused on Superman and Batman.   That changed in 2000 with the release of X-Men.  Many will say that Blade in 1998 was the start, and that may be true, but I ...

 The Naked Gun just came out.  And it was hilarious.  It captured the essence of the original trilogy while having fresh, original jokes. There is one Naked Gun trailer where Liam Neeson talks about how every day a comedy script is getting rejected.   It's true.  The comedy drama, which has evolved but gone strong since the days of silent films, is dying.   In the 1941 film Sullivan's Travels, a famous director, best known for comedy, decides he wants to make a serious film about the plight of the homeless.  In a series of circumstances, he finds himself in jail, with nobody believing his true identity.  He attends a movie while in jail, a comedy, and sees how the poor suffering souls in prison all find joy in comedy.  And thus he decides he must keep making comedies. We are gong through hard times.  We need comedy more than ever.  But unfortunately, I think the sensitivity of younger generations (the target audience for f...

 Lots of spoilers.  Don't get mad at me if you keep reading. So I should be editing the Sci-Fi Multiverse book, but this is a great way to procrastinate on that project. I said that I'd be mixing it up on the TVCU blog, and here is one of those mixing it up moments. I'm not just the Crossovers Guy, I'm also the Superman Guy.  I was highly anticipating this movie, so much so that even though my car was in the shop, I walked miles to see this movie.   And I felt it was underwhelming.   Before I get to what I didn't like though, let me talk about what I did like. I didn't hate this movie.  I wouldn't even say I was disappointed.  It was fine.  It just didn't blow me away.  So what did I like? First off, Luthor!  Luthor was captured perfectly.  He was evil, arrogant, insecure, envious, so flawed.  Perfect. Lois Lane.  Rachel Brosnahan really looked and acted like Lois.   Though there wasn't much humor for a...

 Three's Company is another series with some spin-offs,  I know I usually do these posts the first week of the month, but tomorrow is the first so close enough.   1977 - 1984--Three's Company--This was a great series.  It ran in syndication in reruns when I was a kid.  Jack Tripper needs a place to live.  Janet and Chrissy need a roommate.  Only the landlord is conservative and won't let a male room with women.  Except despite being homophobic, he's okay if Jack is gay, and so the deception and constant misunderstandings which are the basis for the comedy begin.   1979--That 70's Show Stone Cold Crazy. Don Knotts appears has Jackie and Fez's Landlord and has a comical misunderstanding.   Ralph Furley mentioned he was the Landlord at some of his brother's other properties. So this  must take place shortly before his brother had him be the landlord for the roommates on Three's Company  1979-1980--The Ropers--Mr. Ro...